Press release

"I didn't believe we can win a set against USA," says Rwanda coach

USA coach Peter Hanson and team captain Matthew West before their post match interview

USA Coach Peter Hanson:

"First of all I want to congratulate Rwanda for their good game. We were very emotional and had ups and downs during the game. I believe that we played good volleyball, but we have lack of training, that’s why we did some mistakes. We will improve as the tournament progresses."

USA Captain Matthew West:

Rwanda played really well today. This championship is not easy. All teams are in good performance here otherwise they wouldn’t be here. Although we had some mistakes we played well. Rwanda got the 3rd set but we managed to win the match. I believe we will get better as the tournament goes on.

Rwanda Coach Paul Bitok:

I’m not disappointed about the result. This is the first time we are participating in Men's U21 World Championship. Players were really afraid of USA at the beginning and this is why we could not get good scores in the first set. Our main mistake at the first set was the reception. USA came with very strong service. They are more experienced than us. We came up in the 2nd set. After second set my team was very excited. They didn’t believe they can get one set at the beginning. We are going to prepare ourselves for the next match because this is very important for us to get an international experience. We came here to improve ourselves match by match.

Rwanda Captain Aimable Mutuyimana:

First of all this is our first championship and we are very happy to be here. I think we will improve ourselves as much as we play. USA beat us 3-1 but I believe we played good match. It was not an easy match but we managed to play well and win the third set. We had some mistakes because we don’t have international experience. As long as we play in many competitions we will get experienced more and more.

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